Drug gang threats force French police to put southern mayor under protection

The mayor of Alès in southern France was taken from his home at night by an elite police unit amid fears of an imminent attack by the country’s most dreaded drug gang, officials said Tuesday. Christophe Rivenq had previously received death threats linked to the DZ Mafia gang, which has grown out of its Marseille base to become one of France’s main security threats. The mayor of Alès in southern France was taken from his home at night by an elite police unit amid fears of an imminent attack by the country’s most dreaded drug gang, officials said Tuesday.

Christophe Rivenq had previously received death threats linked to the DZ Mafia gang, which has grown out of its Marseille base to become one of France’s main security threats. By: FRANCE 24 Video by: Bryan QUINN To display this content from YouTube, you must enable tracking and audience measurement. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.

Cover town hall of Alès, in southern France, where drug-related violence has spiked in recent months. © Krzysztof Golik, via Wikimedia Creative Commons 01:51 The southern town of Alès was thrust at the forefront of France ’s drug wars this week when it emerged its mayor had been taken from his home at night and placed in police custody – for his own safety. Christophe Rivenq, a member of the conservative Les Républicains party, was whisked away by the elite RAID police unit in the early hours of Tuesday after authorities got wind of a potential attack against him.

He remains under police protection at an undisclosed location. The incident marks a further escalation in France’s battle against deadly drug crime that has brought bloodshed and fear to Marseille, the country’s second-largest city, and beyond. ing children coerced into the trade.

Attacks against elected officials, however, have so far remained rare. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he took the decision to remove the mayor of Alès after credible intelligence suggested an attack was imminent by members of the DZ Mafia, a powerful gang originating in Marseille, about 160 kilometres (99 miles) south of Alès. “Alès is clearly a place where the DZ Mafia is trying to establish a foothold, Nunez told reporters on Tuesday.

Local media cited reports of a suspicious vehicle parked near Rivenq’s home that police believed may have been laden with explosives. Christophe Rivenq, the mayor of Alès, has vowed not to give in to threats. © Objectif Gard, Youtube screen grab The mayor had found 9mm bullets in his mailbox and threatening graffiti on the walls of his home earlier this month, France's National Prosecutor's Office for the Fight Against Organised Crime (PNACO) said.

After those threats, Rivenq had vowed to carry on with his job, telling reporters: “I will not give in to threats or intimidation. We must not give in here or anywhere else, otherwise it will spell the failure of the Republic. PNACO, a recently created unit tasked with tackling France's surging drug crime, said Tuesday it had taken over the case from Marseille prosecutors.

Over the past year, the DZ Mafia has made inroads into the capital of the Gard department, with a population of 46,000, attempting to supplant local networks. In early June, an 18-year-old man was shot dead in the town’s Près-Saint-Jean neighbourhood, an area plagued by drug trafficking. A 54-year-old man was killed and a man in his thirties was injured near a drug dealing spot there in mid-January.

Days before the June killing, four young people from the Seine-Saint-Denis area around Paris were targeted by a burst of automatic gunfire as they arrived in the Près-Saint-Jean neighbourhood. The fast-growing DZ Mafia has morphed from a local player in Marseille into one of France’s main security threats through its domination of the drug trade and ruthless elimination of rivals. While its methods evoke the most violent mafias, the name can be misleading, says Yann Bisiou, an expert on drug trafficking and public policy at Paul-Valéry University in nearby Montpellier. “People tend to think of it as a mafia-like pyramidal structure, when in fact it’s really a brand, a horizontal network operating through local franchises, Bisiou explained.